(Newser)
–
The skin on a recruit's buttocks was "liquefied" by chemical burns during a hazing incident at a Marine Corps boot camp on Parris Island in South Carolina, according to documents made public by the Washington Post. The documents state drill instructor Sgt. Jeffrey VanDyke forced the unnamed recruit to do "unauthorized" exercises on a bleach-covered floor under a laundry bin. The recruit was then made to stay in his wet pants for hours. According to the documents, the recruit suffered second- and third-degree chemical burns on his buttocks. He continued in boot camp for days without treatment, having been told that if he sought medical attention he wouldn't be allowed to graduate with his fellow recruits. He eventually required a skin graft.

The Marine Corps documents were released through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Post. The request was made after the death at Parris Island last year of a 20-year-old recruit named Raheel Siddiqui. The documents reveal dozens of incidents of abuse of Marine Corps recruits over the past five years, with the previously undisclosed 2012 chemical burn incident believed to be one of the worst. VanDyke was sentenced to a year in military prison back in 2014 following multiple allegations of assault, maltreatment, cruelty, and more. Read the full story, which includes reports of other boot camp abuse incidents, here.